


A New Home

by keepfabandgayon



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Drift Bond, Drift Side Effects, Gen, The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-02
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 10:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepfabandgayon/pseuds/keepfabandgayon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I want to meet Yancy."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Home

**Author's Note:**

> this started out as "after the not-apocalypse, mako and raleigh become teachers in the continuing jaeger program" and then turned into something else. i like it, though.

"Stop." When Mako Mori tells you to stop, you stop, and the two cadets did. She nodded to one of the young men. "You are ignoring your training. Your balance is completely off. How do you expect to predict and respond to the motions of someone with whom you may be Drift compatible if you can't even control your own body?" 

"Sorry, Sensei."

"It will never become second-nature if you do not put in the effort first. Begin again."

A bell rang out the hour. Mako closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "Dismissed."

She and Raleigh stepped off the small platform. The cadets handed off their staffs and Mako and Raleigh took up their places opposite each other on the mat. 

"Dismissed" meant "stay a while longer if you want to be reminded of what your goal is."

The more they trained, the longer their bouts went; they were too good at predicting each other's movements. It could take Mako and Raleigh several minutes to land a single hit, and the cadets could expect about ten to fifteen minutes off their free period. 

Mako got the first point; she finally caught Raleigh by the ankle as he tried to dodge a swing at his feet, then aimed at his chest before he even picked his head up to look up at her from the ground. Raleigh swung up at her face as soon as she stepped back, stopping the point of the staff just under her chin and getting the second point. 

"Can't believe that worked. You're off your game today."

She didn't respond; instead, she got the next two points with the same move, stepping under a wide swing at her side and pressing the staff into the middle of his back. 

"And you say I'm off my game."

Raleigh's next point was hard-won; Mako kicked his staff out of his hands in a flip, but he managed to grab onto hers before she was stable again and pinned her down, holding it a hair's breadth away from her neck. 

Mako came after him like a hurricane after that, spinning her staff around and backing him into a corner as he tried to block all her attacks and put space between the two of them. Raleigh wondered for the briefest moment if there was something wrong; she seemed to almost sense that thought, and let out a scream as she brought the staff down on his head; he slipped his between the two of them and pointed it at her heart at the same moment. 

As soon as Mako's staff came to a stop just above his forehead, she looked down between them, stunned that they tied a point. "That's never happened before."

They both stepped back and moved into a resting stance. "Dismissed," Raleigh said; Mako's dismissal was a challenge, but Raleigh's was a conclusion. The cadets filed out, most sneaking glances back at their teachers and whispering as soon as they left the KWOON training room. 

"So, I guess we've reached some sort of mastery of Drift compatibility!" Raleigh said, once the cadets were gone. 

Mako nodded. "I want to meet Yancy."

"If it's all right with you" went unsaid; she knew Raleigh wanted to share everything he had with her, including and especially his brother. 

"Yeah." Raleigh nodded. "Yeah, sure." He held out his hand, and she clasped it, and they put away their staffs and walked hand-in-hand down to the Drift testing centre. 

\---

"Hey, Mako."

Mako had seen Yancy before, in the blurry, lightning-quick flashes of memory through their previous Drifts. But this was different. Those were memories, little bits and pieces of life that Raleigh and Yancy had shared. But this -- this was _Yancy_.

"Hello, Yancy."

He grinned at her. 

This was Yancy. He was different from Mako's memories of her mother, her father, her grandparents, Pentecost... This wasn't just memories pieced together into something resembling a person. This was really Yancy; everything that Yancy was, shared with Raleigh through the many Drifts they'd shared. 

This was Yancy's soul, and a little bit of it lived on with Raleigh. 

Now she understood why surviving pilots said they felt a bit of them died with their co-pilots. 

Yancy moved in and wrapped his arms around her. She was shocked by the motion, but she accepted it and hugged him back. He rubbed her back slowly, and it was only then that she realised she was crying inside the Drift. Her body wore a stoic mask, but here in the Drift her emotions were on display, and the feel of Yancy's soul touching hers was overwhelming. 

"Did you know?" she whispered, looking over Yancy's shoulder. 

Raleigh gave her a strange smile. "Yeah. He's always been there. That's, I think, how I was able to deal with his death. He doesn't blame me, so I can't blame myself."

Mako nodded and closed her eyes, sinking deeper into Yancy's warmth, into the soft brown sweater he wore. 

"Could this happen with us?"

Raleigh was closer when he responded. "It's already started. I think it happens, on some level, with everyone who Drifts."

"Which means you have a little bit of me too, Mako," Yancy added. "Make sure you do me justice." Yancy reached out one arm to Raleigh and added him to the hug. Raleigh put his arms around both of them, and Mako made herself a new home within the warm embrace of the Becket brothers.


End file.
